Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn) 'Let's bring our troops home and start putting Americans first ...'

[bigtree]

War not conservative (Rep. John J. Duncan)
By Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-Tenn.) - 11/18/09 12:04 PM ET

There is nothing conservative about the war in Afghanistan. The Center for Defense Information said a few months ago that we had spent over $400 billion on the war and war-related costs there. Now, the Pentagon says it will cost about $1 billion for each 1,000 additional troops we send to Afghanistan. One Republican Member from California told me recently that we could buy off every warlord in Afghanistan for $1 billion.

Fiscal conservatives should be the ones most horrified by all this spending. Conservatives who oppose big government and huge deficit spending at home should not support it in foreign countries just because it is being done by our biggest bureaucracy, the Defense Department.

We have now spent $1.5 trillion that we did not have--that we had to borrow--in Iraq and Afghanistan. Eight years is long enough. In fact, it is too long. Let's bring our troops home and start putting Americans first once again.


http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/68365-war-not-conservative-rep-john-j-duncan

[NewJeffCT]

1. but, nobody wants to vote against it for fear of being accused

of being weak on terror and weak on defense.

however, it's a good sign a Republic is saying this on the record.

[WI_DEM]

2. My ? is did he say this when W was president as well?

[bdamomma]

3. these guys are hypocrites to the largest degree,

[bigtree]

5. Is that really constructive ground to oppose his view?

I'm just grateful for the opposition to the occupation. It's certainly not what I hear from his fellow republican members.

to answer: Surprisingly, yes. He opposed Bush's Iraq . . .


House of Representatives, September 10, 2003

There is nothing conservative about the U.S. policy in Iraq.

by Rep. John J. Duncan

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/duncan3.html

[Fly by night]

10. Yes he did. Duncan has opposed Iraq/Afghanistan conquests for years now.

Google him -- you might be pleasantly surprised.

[jesus_of_suburbia]

17. Yes, he was against the Iraq war from the start.

[SharonAnn]

23. Yes, and he voted against the Iraq war. He's a "true conservative".

He not a moderate. He's just a true conservative who doesn't believe in "foreign entanglements".

he also doesn't believe in Social Security, Unemployment Compensation, any Federal programs, EEOC, OSHA, etc.

He's my congressman. I read his Constituent Letter every time it comes. Disgusting!

But, he is against the war.

[bigtree]

25. figures

Still, his adherence to Buckley type conservatism in his position on the occupations frames the utter dishonesty of those in his party who allowed Bush to cast his military interventionism in Iraq as patriotic.

[Hippo_Tron]

4. Rep. Duncan should tell his party to stop painting Democrats as "weak on security"

It's easy to be against a war when you're a Republican because nobody could possibly paint you as weak on security in order to win an election. Meanwhile every Democrat has been constantly faced with that meme since Eisenhower and Joe McCarthy.

[bigtree]

7. I'd encourage him to press his party as well on that

But, I don't see any value in deflecting from his opposition to the occupations (if you're actively opposing them). It may well be 'easy' to oppose them as a republican, but that hasn't compelled many to do so openly.

[Hippo_Tron]

27. True, but I'm just saying if he really wants to get out of Afghanistan

Then the best thing he can do is work to get Obama true bipartisan support for withdrawal.

[Winterblues]

6. I think this guy is in desperate need of his kool-aid fix.

Common sense from a Republican...:shrug: who ever heard of such a thing?

[gratuitous]

8. Goddam hippy!

Go smoke some LSD, Duncan, you hippy. U!S!A! U!S!A!

Oh wait; he's a Republican? Now how in the world did this happen? Major recalibration of the Mighty Republican Wurlitzer might have to be made if they're suddenly going to go all soft on terrorism and stuff and start advocating for a more responsible foreign and domestic policy.

I'm guessing this is a trial balloon, and Rep. Duncan will soon be herded back inside the corral.

[Fly by night]

9. Rep. Duncan is a good man -- the sort of moderate Republican that TN used to pride ourselves in.

But that was before our state's Rethugs starting (s)electing knuckle-dragging Neanderthals, Manchurian candidates and loud drunks using their very friendly (and unverifiable) DRE voting machines.

I met with a very prominent state Republican leader early this year about protecting the TN Voter Confidence Act (which bans DREs in favor of paper ballots/optical scan/random manual audits). He said that he had attended a Rethug meeting in east Tennessee where Rethugs discussed openly using the DREs to get rid of Duncan. I guess there was no credible opponent (not surprising, given some of the Manchurian Dems who represent Knoxville) and the pre-election polls showed Duncan out front too far to steal the election.

To repeat, John Duncan is a good man and a moderate Republican. If I could vote for him, I would certainly do so before giving my DINO rep (Lincoln Davis) another vote.

[bigtree]

11. good to know

. . . although, we've had 'good' republicans in my state and I would never vote to give their party another potential vote on some republican goodie that slips by the radar. Never. Good to know, though.

[Fly by night]

15. I'm a yellow dog myself, but my DINO rep is pro-war, anti-health and intelligence-deficient.

Maybe if we went back to actually counting the votes they way they are cast in Tennessee, we could have more moderate Republicans and more liberal (or at least intelligent) Democrats. Right now, we have Duncan, Jim Cooper and Steve Cohen, and that's about it.

[TornadoTN]

22. I've got Phil "Doctor No" Roe as my rep

At least you guys have some semblance of sanity in other parts of the state. Roe is the worst Rep. that we've put out there in this state, and that's saying something.

[asjr]

18. Lincoln Davis is my rep and he needs to be run

out of town on a rail with tar and feathers.

[Tippy]

20. Same for my Rep...Bart Gordon....I'll supply the feathers.....

[SharonAnn]

24. He's not a moderate. He's a right-wing conservative. Just against the war.

He is not moderate about anything that we care about. He's against Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, a woman's right to choice, integration, gay marriage, Federal programs of just about any kind, Global Warming legislation, OSHA, EEOC, etc.

He's no moderate! Don't delude yourself.

He's very, very conservative and against everything we believe in.

[Fly by night]

26. There's right-wing and then there's reich-wing. If I have to choose, I'll take the former.

Compared to Zach Wamp, Ron Ramsey, Jason Mumpower, Debra Maggart, Stacey Campfield, Paul Stanley, etc., etc., ad nauseum and the rest of the Tennessee Republi-Nazis -- Duncan is Kucinich.

As for Duncan being "... against everything we believe in....", he is against staying in Iraq and Afghanistan, and so am I. Sweeping generalizations don't separate the wheat from the elephant shit, IMHO. But if you east Tennesseans can find a progressive Democrat to run against him, let me know and I'll be happy to contribute.

[Doctor_J]

12. This is right on schedule. A week after O decides to stay

we suddenly start hearing from the anti-war Repukes.

[bigtree]

14. I doubt that's going to be the case with any sizable number of them

In this one, his (public) opposition to the occupations began in 2003 with Bush in Iraq.


Duncan from 2003:

"No matter who is President, almost all the leaders of the Defense Department, the State Department, the National Security Council, and our intelligence agencies are going to advocate more and more involvement in foreign affairs, even those which should be none of our business or even where there is no threat to our vital interests.

This is because all their power and glory and, most importantly, their funding are determined in large part by our involvement in the affairs of other nations. These people are not seen as men and women of action and as world statesmen unless they urge that we do more and more in other countries.

Unfortunately, we do not have many Calvin Coolidge's leading these departments and agencies today.

I wish more of our leaders would heed the advice of President Kennedy who said in 1962: "we must face the fact that the United States is neither omnipotent nor omniscient – that we are only six percent (now four percent) of the world's population – that we cannot impose our will upon the other 94 percent of mankind – that we cannot right every wrong or reverse each adversity – and that therefore there cannot be an American solution to every world problem."

full text: http://www.antiwar.com/orig/duncan3.html

[Winterblues]

13. Squawk.."Cut N Run"...Squawk..."Cut N Run"

:shrug:

[StarfarerBill]

16. *My* representative said this?!

Admittedly, he's couching it in typical Republican-anti-spending-speak rather than talking about the human cost of these wars, but still...

:wow:

[Uncle Joe]

19. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, bigtree.

[Tippy]

21. K&R...

[TicketyBoo]

28. That would be my hope, too.

If Al-Quaeda comes back into Afghanistan, then go get 'em.